Priest found with handgun on ferry was 'asked to get rid of it after confession'

An Italian priest is being held in jail after he was found to be carrying a gun during a security check on a ferry.

The unnamed 33-year-old priest was found with the .9mm calibre handgun as he boarded a ferry bound for Sardinia at Civitavecchia, north of Rome.

Dressed in black robes and a dog collar, the handgun was found during an X-ray on the priest's luggage.

Police were called and he was taken to a local jail, where he insisted for several hours that the Catholic doctrine prevented him from revealing details about the gun as it had been given to him during a confession.

He eventually told police that the gun had been given to him by a 70-year-old parishioner, who had asked him to get rid of it - and he had planned to throw it overboard into the sea during the voyage.